The corps of meter maids either opted for retirement or bumped for other city jobs rather than ultimately becoming employees of the new authority, which now must employ and train a new parking control cadre.

The tickets for parking violations that will be used until the authority has time to draft and print its own are the same used for years by the city. However, a pen was used to scratch out the city's identification and stickers were affixed to the tickets advising violators to mail the fine to the Allentown Parking Authority, P.O. Box 1349, Allentown 18105.

Some motorists collecting a ticket for illegal parking were surprised when they drove to police headquarters and found the driveup window to pay fines closed.

The window was closed and marked by a large sign directing motorists to "the parking deck in the 600 block of Linden Street" to pay any parking fines.

Motorists following that advice found they had to either park illegally or find a metered space so they could go to the parking garage attendant's window to pay a ticket they received earlier for illegal parking.

Authority officials were not immediately available to comment on how soon they hoped to resolve questions and other problems arising from their takeover of parking activities in the city.